A New Contender
by Alister131
Summary: Luffy meets a mysterious stranger at the Corrida Coliseum. A bit of an experimental story not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

This is just a one shot introduction of a character I've been thinking up. Since this is my first time writing a fanfiction I wanted to give a little glimpse of the personality and powers of my character before I decided to actually write a multiple chapter story about him.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with One Piece accept for my OC and his powers.

General POV

"Public registration to participate in the event is about to close!"

"Luffy... You need to sign up over there, I think..." said the cyborg. Wearing a black coat and hat but only a speedo for pants and sporting a fake beard and wig, he stood out in the crowd easily even wearing a disguise.

"Hm? Really?" Luffy asked. "Me! Me! I wanna sign up!" Much to the shock of the gathered crowd who murmured in surprise and horror of what they believed would happen to the man.

The larger man said "Hey Luffy! I think it's some kind of battle spectacle... Just remember you can go crazy... Just don't let them know who you really are!"

"Gotcha!"

"Write your name here."

"Luf-"

"YOU IDIOT!" yelled the cyborg, hitting the rubber man in the head which of course barely fazed him being made of rubber. Suddenly, the duo heard a voice behind them which sounded both silky smooth and yet grating like sandpaper at the same time.

"Excuse me, but what event would you be signing up for?" Everyone who heard the voice couldn't help but feel a slight shiver. Some felt fear, but everyone there felt a general- wrongness- in the voice.

"Ummm, it's called the Corrida Colosseum, but beyond that I don't know," Luffy replied, still feeling a little weirded out by the man's voice. Taking a good look at him, Luffy that the man was a good foot taller than him, and while lanky was definitely well built. The man was dressed in black v-neck t-shirt, pants, and cowboy boots equip with spurs. Over this he wore a black trench coat with red trim, the sleeves reaching just past his elbows. He also wore a black hat with a small red feather in it, a bandanna covering all but a small portion on his face, and black finger-less gloves. The only features that were visible were his nose which looked normal enough, his silver hair, and a black tribal tattoo on his chest. For weapons, the man had two black pistols strapped to his hips, and there was a distinctive hilt of a black Celtic style two handed sword sticking out from his left shoulder.(1)

"Hmmm, sounds like fun! Sign me up!"

"Well of course, sir. But I'm afraid you'll have to leave your guns here because they're not allow in the Colosseum battle. And you'll just need to sign you're name right here," the receptionist said a little fearfully not being able to feel at all comfortable around this man due to the general wrongness he exuded.

"Ehhhhhh? Well, alright. As long as I get them back," he handed her his guns and signed his name on the sheet. She quickly scurried off wanting to get away from him.

Luffy, never to be perturbed, asked the man, "So, who are you?"

"Name's Vale...?" Sticking out his gloved hand to shake.

"Lucy!" Luffy replied to the mysterious Vale while shaking his hand.

"Well, 'Lucy' I guess I'll see you inside the ring." With that he spun on his heel, sticking his hands into his pockets, and strolled into the Colosseum. Luffy just scratched his head wondering who the hell that guys was.

Vale's POV

"Well looks like I'm in Division A. I wonder what kinda guys I'll be fighting. Might be a little difficult without my guns. Oh well I have nothing to worry about. As long as don't end up fighting against 'Lucy'." Having recognized Lucy as the infamous pirate, Monkey D. Luffy, Vale had chosen not the ruin the little guy's plan to obtain his brother's Mira Mira no Me fruit. Having only entered the competition for some fun at the last minute since the merchants he had been hired to protect had skipped town without paying him, he felt it would have been cruel to deny someone the last piece they had left of a loved one. "Just because people always think I'm evil doesn't mean I need to be. Damn Devil Fruit! Should have found out what the fucker did before eating it. Oh well, I suppose I should figure out where I need to go."

Walking out into the arena, Vale heard people screaming as the announcer called out names of some more well known competitors, but didn't really pay attention. Instead he scanned for anyone that looked formidable. Immediately, the one that caught his eyes was a large man with a strange piece of armor on his arm, a wrestling outfit, and a paper bag over his head calling himself Mr. Store. "Well well well. Who would've thought Jesus Burgess would show up here? I'll have to watch out for him. Other than him though I don't see anybody that should be too hard to beat. The problem is the sheer number of opponents here. I may need to use that although I would definitely prefer to avoid it. Eh well let's just see how it goes."

Vale drew his sword as the bel rang elicited gasps of horror or revulsion from the stands close enough to see. The sword was Celtic and pitch black, but the strangest thing about it was the lines of blood red that seemed to pulse along the blade. The sword seemed almost alive and wanted to kill. Vale rolled his eyes. The sword was just a normal sword to begin with, but in order to help control his power he had gradually put some of his energy into it to help channel his darkness. It was quite a simple thing really.

One of the other combatants saw the sword and instantly began sweating. "Wait that sword... Your appearance... You couldn't possible be HIM could you?!"

"So what if I am? Does it change anything? We're both combatants in this ring so we're enemies. We fight."

"I suppose you're right. But we're going to make sure to take you down!" With that at least 10 of enemy combatants charged him. Vale smiled and jumped into the fray. Weaving between his opponents with his sword, he chopped and sliced his way through. The problem was that his skill had attracted more combatants who decided it was in their best entrance to take him down altogether. "Damn really wish I had my guns right now!" He continued to take down his enemies and he was working up quite a sweat. But he felt alive, he felt like he was having fun for the first time in ages. That was until someone cut his hat off.

Instantly, Vale was filled with anger and rage. He roared, "You BASTARDS! You cut my hat!" As the hat fell to the ground, he looked up at the assailants who were now cowering in fear, seeing that his eyes were glowing a bright red and kept getting a stronger glow. Sheathing his sword, he yelled, "Fine! I wasn't going to do this originally, but now you pissed me off!" He then began to use his power and as he did the shadows around him began to swirl and his tattoo started to pulse.

Luffy's POV

Luffy had just finished talking to Rebecca and had walked to the balcony. He wanted to see what types of opponents were still in the ring and he had found out Vale was in Division A. "I'm pretty sure he's a Devil Fruit eater, but I have no clue what his power is." He looked down and saw Vale cutting through enemies left and right with a large two-handed sword, that look frankly eerie. Then, all of a sudden, Vale's hat was cut and knocked off his head and Vale lost it.

Gatz gasped as he saw Vale's face and exclaimed, "I DON'T BELIEVE MY EYES, BUT THAT CANT BE ANYONE OTHER THAN UMBRA VALE!"

"Who the hell is Umbra Vale?" Luffy asked.

Rebecca suddenly appeared next to Luffy and replied, "Umbra Vale is a famous mercenary who usually takes protection jobs for merchants or ships traveling through a pirates territory. It's said that if you manage to make him angry, anybody who lives through the experience suffers from acute terror the rest of there lives. They end up shells of their former selves. However, from what I hear he is a decent individual, but most people can't feel comfortable around him for whatever reason."

"Hmm, now that you say that it did feel really weird when I met him earlier. Although I don't know what."

Looking back at the arena, they saw that some kind of black mist had covered a portion of the arena. From within the mist they heard bloodcurdling screams and evil laughter. Everyone in the stands was absolutely quiet. Finally, the screams died down until Mr. Store flew out of the black fog and hit the wall before falling into the water. Almost instantly the fog began to be sucked into the center until it was gone. The only one left standing was Vale and the crowd was completely silent. As Gatz, stuttered out that the Umbra Vale was the winner, he simply stooped down, pick up his hat, and walked out of the stadium.

Rebecca had a horrified look on her face and ask "Just what the hell is he?

Luffy simply had stars in his eyes and screamed "That was awesome!" Having already decided on the newest member of the Straw Hats.

Alright well that's the end. So what do you guys think? I wasn't initially going to write it this way, but the story kinda took a life of it's own and I'm not sure if I should just continue from here or start a new story and give Vale more of a backstory. Well any suggestions?


	2. Chapter 2

Well my few followers, now that finals week has ended and I'm back home for break, I have come to the decision that I will be discontinuing this story in favor of putting Vale earlier in the story. Sorry for any anger or disappointment this may cause. In addition there will be additional changes to his fighting style, appearance and possibly personality. Oh and I basically going to nerf his powers for now because I'll be inserting him before the time skip, but after East Blue arc. Well then that's all for now be on the lookout for my new story that I'll probably bring myself to churn out later this week.


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